


Injuries

by shadowlancer_95



Series: Tumblr Snippets [1]
Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Dad!Gildarts, Gen, Hurt!Natsu, Hurt/Comfort, Protective!Gildarts, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-24
Updated: 2019-01-24
Packaged: 2019-10-15 11:55:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17528255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadowlancer_95/pseuds/shadowlancer_95
Summary: Magic was tied to the life force of wizards - a fact that holds even more truth for dragon slayers. To drain a dragon slayer of their magic was to take away their life.Or,The one where Natsu's experiences with magic drains actually has an effect on him.





	Injuries

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all! So I've finally ventured into the realm of Fairy Tail, and let me just say this: the anime is AMAZING. I don't know why I didn't watch it earlier. I love almost all the characters that appear, and the one relationship that I really really liked (even though I've only seen them interacting twice) is Gildarts and Natsu. I like how Gildarts treats Natsu like his son, and I would be satisfied if that relationship was all that happened for the rest of the anime. 
> 
> Anyway, long note is getting long, but this is just a short snippet I wrote in the middle of the night after a binge. (Because Natsu is my favorite character and who doesn't like to whump their favs?)
> 
> Anyway, I do hope you guys enjoy the story! :)))
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail.

Gildarts stalked towards the guild, his tattered cloak billowing menacingly behind him. The normally cheerful residents of Magnolia found themselves shivering at the crackle of magical power that surrounded his person, those too slow to move out of the way flinching as they accidentally brushed against his magic, a feeling which they could only later on describe as being burned.

For once, he didn’t walk through any houses despite the lack of rearrangement the city had installed purely for him. His attention had sharpened into a deadly fine focus, and with it came the need to wrangle his power into control lest he destroy the entire city.

He only released his power - a tiny trickle - when he came to the doorway of the guild, the wooden construct splintering into tiny cubes that scattered across the floor. It caught the attention of the entire guild, and distantly, he heard the master call out his name in confusion.

Lips twisting into a snarl, he stalked up to the innermost table where Gray Fullbuster sat, a hand shooting out to slam the ice wizard onto the table. Ignoring the alarmed cries of the rest of the guild, he glared at the younger teen, who was wincing as the rough surface of the table dug into his cheek.

“Gildarts -!”

“I want to know everything about Edolas.” He said quietly, dangerously. “I want to know what happened to Natsu there and I want to know why the fuck you thought it was a good idea to allow some crazy bitch to drain Natsu’s magic.” Gildarts hissed, his hand tightening on Gray’s collar.

* * *

 

_“Gildarts!” Happy shrieked, bursting through the door in a flurry of blue and white._

_The wizard - who had been quietly dozing in his armchair - shot upright, wincing as the action pulled on his wounds. Turning to the reason for his sudden jolt back to the land of consciousness, he blinked confusedly._

_“Happy? What’s –”_

_The blue Exceed rushed forward, barrelling straight into the wizard’s chest, sobbing loudly. “It’s Natsu! Gildarts, you need to help Natsu! I told him to get help but he didn’t want to and now he’s – now he’s –”_

_Gildarts felt something seize in his chest. He carefully peeled Happy away from his chest. “Start at the beginning,” he commanded, “What’s wrong with Natsu? And where is he?”_

_Happy hiccuped, tears still falling from his eyes – the most distraught Gildarts had ever seen him to date._

_“He – I left him at the edge of the forest! We were going to fish – I told him not to go but he insisted and then he – he won’t wake up!”_

_The unknown emotion in his heart turned to icy fear and foreboding dread. Ignoring his wounds, he leapt to his feet, all but throwing himself out of the door._

_“Show me where he is, and tell me everything!”_

_Happy launched himself into the air, flying as fast as he could to where he last left Natsu, tripping over his retelling to Gildarts._

_“Natsu – Natsu wasn’t feeling well after the party, so we went home. But then he decided to go fish because I said I was hungry, but I told him no because he looked really bad.” Happy recounted, trying to remain strong for his friend even as his eyes burned with tears. “We got to the edge of the forest, but then he suddenly collapsed. I tried to wake him but he wouldn’t wake up!” The Exceed wailed, “I didn’t know what to do –”_

_“So you came to me.” Gildarts finished, his mouth set in a grim line as he kept pace with Happy._

_The cat nodded glumly, though the movement was lost in his flight._

_Gildarts saw Natsu the moment they neared the tree line, and he felt the dread intensify. The salmon-haired teen was curled up on the ground, his limbs splayed out in a manner that did nothing to soothe the fear that gripped his heart like a vice. He skidded to a stop beside Natsu, dropping to his knees almost immediately._

_Placing a hand on the teen’s shoulder, he shook him lightly, trying to rouse him. “Natsu, Natsu wake up.”_

_When that didn’t work, Gildarts turned him over carefully, eyes widening at the ashen pallor of his foster son’s skin. Placing two fingers at Natsu’s throat, he flinched instinctively at the burning sensation, horror spreading like poison within him._

How the _hell_ could a fire dragon slayer get a fever?

_Shaking his head, Gildarts placed his fingers back on Natsu’s throat, ignoring the heat burning his fingers as he counted. Gritting his teeth, Gildarts slid his arms underneath the teen’s back and knees, lifting him into his arms easily._

_It didn’t matter that Natsu was merely a head shorter than him, in this moment, Gildarts was struck by how young Natsu looked, the teen’s bullheadedness and larger-than-life attitude always overshadowing the fact that he was still sixteen. The older wizard cradled his somewhat protégé in his arms, disturbed by how Natsu – always boisterous and always moving even when asleep – was deathly still in his arms._

_“Happy, fly ahead to Porlyusica and tell her we’re coming.” He instructed, barely waiting for a subdued ‘Aye’ before sprinting off, the blue Exceed shooting through the forest at his fastest speed._

_Feeling the slow heartbeat in the boy cradled in his arms, Gildarts growled, praying that the healer would be able to save him._

* * *

 

“Gildarts!” Erza shouted, snapping out of her stupor first, her eyes blazing with anger. “What is the meaning of this?”

“Stay out of this!” He snarled at her, shocking her enough for him to redirect his ire to the wizard in his grasp.

“Tell me. Now.”

“Look, she was interested in Natsu okay? She had this plan to use his magic to power her dragonoid and –”

“So you decided to sell your friend out?” Gildarts demanded.

“No!” Gray protested, struggling feebly, “The thing was indestructible from the outside, only Natsu could overload it from the inside!”

Gildarts ground his teeth so harshly that he wondered how he didn’t chip a tooth. He opened his mouth to make a scathing comment about the stupidity of such a plan when a loud voice cut through the air.

“Gildarts!” Makarov boomed, glaring at his strongest wizard from where he stood on the bar counter, the various wizards of the guild all still frozen where they were standing, each of them staring at him in shock.

“Release Gray at once and explain yourself!”

Gildarts met his glare with one of his own, several beats of silence passing before he uncurled his fingers from Gray’s collar, the teen scrambling away from him to stand behind Erza the moment he was free.

“You have no right to attack Gray like that.” Makarov reprimanded, standing on the bar top.

“No right?” He echoed, feeling the vestiges of anger stirring up within him once again. His fingers dug into his palm painfully from where they had curled into a fist, hidden beneath his cloak.

“No right? While all of you are sitting here having fun, chatting each other up, Natsu is stuck in Porlyusica’s hut – dying.” He snapped, the words echoing like a gunshot – deafening in the silence of the hall.

He ignored the gasps that escaped many of the guild members, the horror in their eyes nothing compared to the feeling of helplessness as he watched Natsu fight for his life.

* * *

 

_“What’s wrong with him?” The auburn haired wizard demanded, hovering worriedly over the younger wizard whom he’d laid down on the bed._

_“If you can’t make yourself useful then get out!” Porlyusica snapped, her hands glowing with magic as she scanned Natsu’s prone form._

_The elder lady had a deep frown on her face – one more prominent than the usual scowl she wore when faced with other individuals of the human race._

_Backing away slightly, Gildarts removed himself from the immediate vicinity of the witch, forcing himself to remain as calm as possible. His hands twitched every time her scowl deepened, her silence unnerving._

_Soon enough, she straightened from where she’d been bent over the dragon slayer, her lips nothing more than a thin slash across her face. As she turned towards him, Gildarts braced himself for the bad news._

* * *

 

“He’s _dying,”_ Gildarts repeated harshly, echoing the healer’s brusque declaration as he tore himself away from the memories, “because according to Porlyusica, he’s depleted his magic to near – no, not even near, he’s depleted his magic _to_ critical levels multiple times within the span of two weeks.”

He met the master’s shocked eyes head on, “A magic drain is not a joke, not to us wizards, whose life force is affected by the level of magic we have and definitely not to a dragon slayer whose life force is so much more intimately tied to their magic. I know from Happy that he went through not one but two drains, but I’d assumed they happened in Edolas.”

Narrowing his eyes at Gray, he felt a burst of vindictive pleasure at the kid’s rapidly paling skin. “I didn’t expect one of his own _friends_ to subject him to something like that.”

“That’s – that’s impossible.” Lucy whispered, trembling slightly, “Natsu was fine when we came back –”

“Most of his internal systems are messed up, and not just because of his physical injuries.” Gildarts interrupted, his words like a whip cracking at each of them. “Magic helps us to heal from wounds more quickly,” he continued, turning to fix his burning gaze on his master, “and Natsu heals faster than most because of his tremendous reserve as a dragon slayer. So when his reserves were depleted not once but twice...”

* * *

 

_“He’s dying.” She said bluntly._

_Gildarts felt as though someone had punched him, his breath completely stolen away._

_“No!” Happy screeched, and it was a testament to the severity of the situation that the elder witch didn’t fuss about the Exceed flapping all over her face. “Natsu isn’t dying! Don’t say that!”_

_“What’s going on?” Gildarts whispered, stumbling backwards until he hit the wall. “Why is he like that? He was fine just yesterday, what happened that could put him in this situation in less than a day?”_

_Porlyusica sighed, her stern features softening slightly as she turned to look at the young dragon slayer in her hut. Igneel, she thought, your son needs you. Now, more than ever._

_To Gildarts, she said, “His magic has been drained. And I don’t mean just from overusing it in battle. That alone wouldn’t have caused this much damage.”_

_“What are you saying...?”_

_“I’m saying that someone forcibly took his magic from him, drained him to the point where he barely had anything left.” The healer reported, her tone soft but serious._

_“Byro...” Happy whispered, his tail drooping._

_Gildarts narrowed his eyes. “Happy?”_

_The blue cat sniffed, reaching out to place a paw on Natsu’s cheek. “There was this guy in Edolas who was draining magic from Natsu and Wendy to power their machine.”_

_Hissing, Gildarts looked to Porlyusica. “What do we need to do?”_

_“He needs magic to even stabilize. I can use some of mine now, but he will need a lot more energy than I can provide to stabilize his injuries.”_

_Gildarts scowled, turning to leave when his ears picked up a soft murmur, not something he suspected was meant to be heard._

_He whirled around, his cloak flaring out around him. “What about Fullbuster?”_

_Happy started in shock, not realizing that the wizard had heard him. The cat slumped, shifting away from Natsu when Porlyusica began her treatment._

_“Gray he - There was this woman who created a dragonoid. She needed a dragon slayer to power it and Gray - Gray tricked Natsu and got him caught by her!” The cat blurted out, wincing as Gildarts’ expression darkened._

_Happy didn’t want to rat Gray out, not when he knew it wasn’t completely the ice wizard’s fault. But he still remembered Natsu’s screams from inside the dragon, the same screams that echoed in that stone corridor back on Edolas - and he couldn’t find it in himself to say anything else when Gildarts stormed out of the hut, his magic crackling dangerously around him._

* * *

 

“Not twice, three times.” Gajeel growled, drawing Gildarts out of his memories, the iron dragon slayer scowling unhappily.

Wendy gasped, drawing attention to her. “He forced himself to use even more power even though he didn’t have any left...” the female dragon slayer whispered, remembering the way she and Gajeel had all but given up, completely drained of their magical power, while Natsu screamed at them to get up, and dug so deep within him that he’d conjured up more magic – enough to deal a devastating blow to Faust’s fake dragon. She had felt completely drained of energy after her final roar, and she knew that Natsu had probably reached his limits long before she did.

“The severe tax on his magical reserves, along with the injuries he had piled onto each other...” Gildarts laughed bitterly, a bark that made everyone flinch.

Makarov sobered, understanding finally glimmering in his eyes. Gildarts stood before the guild and their master, wondering vaguely just what his purpose here was. He had stormed here after listening to Happy, ready to tear his fellow guild mates a new one and he knew that he needed to find more magic energy for Natsu, but apart from that he’d had no real goal in mind.

“What can we do for him?” Makarov asked quietly.

Gildarts sighed, the anger still boiling within him, but the energy had drained out of him. He ran a hand across his face tiredly. “He needs to replenish his magic, which would normally occur naturally, but Porlyusica said that he can’t stabilize himself right now because he barely has any magic left.”

“I – I can try to lend him some of my energy!” Wendy volunteered, wringing her hands nervously. “Natsu-san made sure that Byro-san took more of his magic instead of mine. I want to help him!”

Looking at the tiny girl with a desperate plea in her eyes, Gildarts nodded mutely, turning on his heel as he strode towards the door. He heard a scramble as the sky dragon slayer hurried after him, her cat friend following with a silent beat of her wings.

They left the guild behind in stunned silence.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a review on your way out! :)
> 
> You can come visit me on Tumblr at either @shadowsofmoonracer or at my new writing blog, @midnight-hallucinations.


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